


sealed

by desertbloom



Category: Tekken (Video Games)
Genre: Body Exhumation, Graphic Description of Corpses, Multi, established relationship but not ship-centric, trigger warning for death and decay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:41:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25169374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desertbloom/pseuds/desertbloom
Summary: As Jin looks into the remains of Heihachi, he feels nothing.
Relationships: Hwoarang/Kazama Jin/Ling Xiaoyu
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	sealed

**Author's Note:**

> self-indulgent, but didn't expect it to be so long

Jin is absently aware of the people walking around him. Nobody’s speaking, save for the cemetery worker leading the way to a private room when they need to take a turn.

It's too early in the morning even for the birds, he thinks briefly noting how the cemetery is filled with trees but no noises can be heard, besides the soft rattling of leaves. 

“Once again, we’re deeply sorry” the cemetery staff apologizes with a condescending voice. “We’ve never had a case of explosive casket before.” Then adds, rather awkwardly “In all honesty, it didn’t seem like our usual work.”

Jin takes a quick glance at Xiaoyu, who walks next to him with her head held high. The way her jaw clenches doesn’t go unnoticed by either him or Hwoarang, who returns his eye contact with a slight shake of his head. Jin doesn’t trust himself to handle her emotional response appropriately, and is grateful their boyfriend can offer an insight so he won’t screw things up for her.

“That’s… okay,” Jin tells the worker “the Zaibatsu won’t be taking any legal action” he nods in the direction of the cemetery’s director who accompanies them, then shrugs “we believe it was his son who sealed the casket in the mausoleum.”

“Who has no ties to our business” the Zaibatsu’s lawyer intervenes, as she types into her mobile phone. “We are here to identify the remains of Mr Mishima father, should the body in the anonymous niche belong to him.”

Usually, exhuming a body would take a lot of paperwork, approval from multiple parts and the next of kin of the deceased to be present, but the Mishima family has never been one to comply to bureaucracy. A considerate digit on a check gets things done faster.

“However we cannot take responsibility for the actions and potential damage caused by Mr Mishima son” the lawyer adds, looking up from the device and into the cemetery director’s eyes.

Jin represses a smile at that, the thought of Kazuya being so paranoid of his father somehow coming back to life he had to make sure the body couldn’t find a way out of the coffin is morbidly hilarious. But he knows better than to laugh at this moment, especially with Xiaoyu present.

Heihachi Mishima was dead, definitely this time. No amount of research on immortality performed at Zaibatsu was mature enough to reanimate a corpse, despite the efforts his subordinates made to rescue him safely from the volcano. He was just a human after all, at the mercy of his own organism and mortality --unlike the devil carriers down his lineage.

“Of course,” the director says with a tight smile “we offer our condolences to the remaining family, Mr Lee.”

Silence.

The lawyer clears her throat. “Mr Mishima’s next of kin couldn’t make it to the States on time due to complications with his visa. This is his grandson, Mr Kazama.”

If it was up to him, Jin would have declined going overseas just to see a rotten corpse in a box, but his adoptive uncle was unable to get there on time, since the cemetery was refusing to extend the date for the extraction fearing the press might catch up to their unorthodox practices --and the bribery. Kazuya was nowhere to be found and Lars Alexandersson was not a recognized son, thus he was left with the task.

If anything, he’s doing it for the only person who Heihachi treated like a real decent human being under his charge. Jin doesn’t understand why Xiaoyu still holds feelings for him, after all that’s happened, but he doesn’t judge. 

“This is it” the cemetery staff announces, standing in front of a heavy metallic door.

“Right” says the lawyer “I’ll go inside first to make sure everything is in order. Your mortician will have to sign some papers,” she reminds the director “it’ll give the three of you time to… prepare.”

“The three?” the white haired man squints “Pardon my intromission, but are they all direct relatives of the deceased?”

The lawyers sighs heavily “Come inside with me a minute, Mr Brooks.”

The two disappear into the mortuary refrigerator and the staff closes the heavy lid behind them. Jin turns to his companions and notices Xiaoyu seems to be concealing a tremor by gritting her teeth. He can’t tell if it’s the freezing air that’s caught her or something else.

“It’s nothing,” Hwoarang beats him to the matter “Jin said that woman has never lost an argument. Right?”

“She got me out of jail” Jin shrugs.

“I’m not worried about that” Xiaoyu frowns, tightening her fists.

Hwoarang takes one of her hands and puts it inside the pocket of his parka, under his own. “I know you hate the cold, is all.”

Xiaoyu starts to relax and the shivering stops.

“Are… you okay, though?” she asks Jin.

Is he? A part of him is in denial, he acknowledges that. Deep down he, much like his father, believes in the myth of the invincible Mishima patriarch. He’s mad that this whole trip might have been in vain and the old man once again made a fool of him, publicly.

“I’m sorry,” Xiaoyu continues “we… I’m supposed to be here for you, not the other way around.”

“He wouldn’t stand a second of this without us” Hwoarang assures her. Jin doesn’t see any reason to argue with that.

“If it’s too much, you… “ Jin starts, but decides to address both of them as not to put Xiaoyu in the spotlight “you guys don’t have to go in there, if you don’t want to.”

Hwoarang shrugs “Saw worse during the war.”

Jin feels guilt tie a knot in his throat.

“And I didn’t know the guy, honest” the korean adds, realizing the topic might make his boyfriend uncomfortable. Today’s not the day for that.

“I want to” Xiaoyu says firmly, squeezing the other’s hand inside his pocket.

“I understand” Jin closes his eyes for a moment. “It has been around a year, according to Zaibatsu reports. I’m not sure what the state of his remains will be in.”

Hwoarang breathes out heavily and looks at both in the eyes interchangeably.

“We’re already here, so I’ll give it to you straight" he warns. "They’ve said the casket was sealed, that’s why the lid of the niche flew off in the middle of the night. His corpse has been releasing fluid and gases for a year without oxygen to decompose properly, and it eventually became a pressure cooker” he takes a breath “He’s been basically floating in a pool of his own bog all that time, it’s not gonna be pretty.”

Jin tries not to think why Hwoarang is so familiar with corpse events. There’s a lot he hasn’t told him about the war.

Xiaoyu is quiet for a moment. “Will it look like him?” she asks timidly.

“There might be some skin left, but…” Hwoarang shakes his head without finishing his thought.

The lid of the refrigerator slides open from inside and the curly redhead of Zaibatsu’s star lawyer leans out. Jin’s heart starts beating so fast he feels his blood accelerate across his entire body.

“Everything in order?” he manages to ask with a stoic expression.

“Of course.” She hesitates “I don’t have access the body unless the next of kin is present, but they said it might be a very sensitive image. You are required to come in, but your companions--”

“Partners” Jin corrects her.

“--partners, don’t have to.”

The three exchange looks and nod. It’s time.

A strange smell hits Jin as soon as he steps in. Not quite decay, but certainly the odor of a room storing freezing corpses. He avoids glancing at Xiaoyu now. She said she could handle it and he doesn’t want to defy her conviction. Besides, he trusts Hwoarang to watch over her.

A forensics team from the Zaibatsu has set up a lab in the back of the room, placing a white curtain in front of what appears to be an autopsy bed, almost like an afterthought. They are provided with face shields, surgical face masks and gloves by one of the assistants, who is most likely a research scientist forced to work as a part-time mortician on this day as per company policy.

“Mr Kazama, good morning” an old lady in a white coat greets him as he approaches them from the other side of the room. “Glad you could make it.”

She tells him her name, her qualifications and some technicalities about the process she’s probably legally obligated to disclose. Jin tries to look interested, at least. His mind is wandering off to the lab table’s shadow.

“Shall we begin?” she asks, perhaps realizing he wasn’t paying attention. She doesn’t look troubled with the situation in the least.

Grabbing the edge of the curtain, she pauses for a moment.

“My condolences, mijo” she mutters, and slides the fabric back.

On the metal slab there is a dark figure, the outlines of the body are intact: four limbs, one head. It takes Jin a few seconds to notice the body isn’t wearing any clothes, but the skin has turned black tones instead. Something deep inside Jin goes alert, finding it hard to believe a man with the body mass that Heihachi cultivated for so many decades has turned into nothing but bones and cartilage. 

He almost convinces himself it’s all been a fraud until he glances up to the face, mouth open and eye sockets empty. He moves forward by instinct, focused on taking a closer look. No matter how decayed this body is, that is with no doubt the face of his grandfather. He just can tell.

He hears a sob in the back and realizes he might have heard Xiaoyu gasp a strangled noise before, but he can’t be sure.

“Apologies,” the doctor puts in “I tried to get rid of the maggots, but they’re sneaky ones.”

And indeed, the bones have some insects clinging to the remains of rotten flesh. It seems to have become an ecosystem of itself, serving as home and nurture for the little creatures consuming him. A selfless act at last, Jin thinks with a faint humour, but fails to move the muscles of his face to smirk. He can’t tell if he’s been staring at the decaying face of Heihachi for three minutes or three years. He keeps waiting to feel something, anything.

“Poor thing” the doctor laments with a sigh, looking past Jin, who turns around slightly to find nobody standing behind him. “But I’m glad she was able to do this.”

“You always want people to see your corpses” the lawyer complains, as she taps her finger over her crossed arms, leaning on one of the walls.

“Only if they want,” the doctor retorts “least they might regret it later in life.”

Jin can’t see her mouth under the mask, but her heavy, tired eyes crinkle as if smiling apologetically.

“You must stay while I take samples” she says, then glares in the lawyer’s direction “due to legal issues.”

“It’s all the cemetery’s part requested,” the younger woman shrugs, almost offended “next of kin to authorize and watch the exhumation, in case the rest of the family wants to take action afterwards.”

“You could have done better” the doctor shakes her head, then turns to Jin “I need to take a sample of the femur, it’ll take a while, so I thank you for your understanding and patience in advance. The scientists at the Zaibatsu’s labs can take care of the rest, for DNA testing.”

“I know it’s him” he states, but doesn’t explain further than that. The doctor doesn’t ask either, as she starts collecting tools for the procedure.

Jin watches her lean over the corpse to mark a circle on the area of the bone she will work on, and when she straightens up a maggot has stuck to her coat. She removes it with one hand and dumps it in a glass jar.

“Are you alright?” she asks him.

He knows he hasn’t moved from his initial spot, but feels his body numbed by the coldness of the room. He’d rather not answer.

“Don’t you feel anything?” he changes the topic with a monotonous voice “doing this?”

“It is simply my job.”

“But it’s a dead body.”

“Yes, indeed” she starts to clean the bone with a cloth damped in a liquid inside a bucket “I don’t mind a little decaying, though. It’s just the maggots that bother me, they materialize from nowhere. But they’re relatively easy to deal with... it’s the living, grieving family that I work hard to honor with my work.”

“I’m not _grieving_ ” Jin mentally retorts with distaste.

He fixates briefly on the word honor. Having Jin loom over his corpse is the last thing that man would have wanted, but he has his subordinates to blame for that, who smuggled his dead body into the States in a useless attempt to save his life with technology that had never been tested, instead of cremating him. Jin admits he never was informed of his grandfather's post-mortem plans, but cremation was a much more natural to guess than this whole mess.

“Besides, he was a lot worse in life" the doctor comments nonchalantly.

“He was your boss?” Jin asks.

“Sometimes,” the doctor recalls, preparing a hacksaw with a clean disposable saw-blade “but his war took my son’s life.”

Jin swallows hard, and sneaks a glance at the lawyer, who pretends to look away. In the trial, the name of Heihachi had been used as a scapegoat for the Zaibatsu’s involvement in the conflict, as to spare the remaining stake holders from a legal sanction --exonerating Jin in the process.

Still, guilt is a heavy punishment.

“And you still don’t mind…?”

“It’s just my job, you see,” she starts sawing a wedge from the bone, taking a moment to talk with every push “death is a natural part of being human, but everybody wants to forget a physical, organic body remains after passing. I take care of the corpses because rarely anybody does, and we can’t have the streets filled with decay. Dealing with a corpse is no different than dealing with rotting food or meat, in a technical sense. Whoever this man was, he is no longer” she examines the piece of bone that’s been successfully removed with tweezers “but we need this DNA sample for matters concerning the living at this moment.”

Jin reflects in silence for a few moment as the doctor puts the sample away.

“So it’s okay. Not to feel anything” he quietly ponders.

“Most people project their feelings onto a dead body,” she thinks out loud “despite it no longer having an occupant, it is just as natural to experience the love, admiration, sorrow and even hatred for those who once lived in them.”

The lawyer walks up next to her and interrupts her ramblings, extending a pile of papers in one hand, and they both proceed to inspect its contents.

“We need your signature here” the redhead calls for him.

Jin feels oddly calm, and manages to make his way to the lawyer.

The doctor leaves their side to dispose of the implements used and Jin soon joins her next to the operating metal table, to look at the remains of his caretaker, abuser and once enemy for the last time.

“Do you not resent him?” Jin ventures, feeling his knees weaken as he waits for an answer he’s not sure he fears or yearns, before the doctor pulls over a white sheet over the skull of the corpse.

“I’ve let go of that turmoil long ago,” she closes her eyes, covering forever the face of the Mishima family’s patriarch “there is nothing I can feel for these remains.”


End file.
